The performance of wireless mobile computing devices is affected by the capabilities of the underlying network technologies. To provide voice and data communication capabilities, cellular wireless communication systems are widely deployed, which use a variety of radio access technologies (RATs). Such systems may be multiple-access systems able to support communication with multiple users by sharing system resources such as bandwidth, frequency, and transmission power. Commonly used multiple-access systems include, but are not limited to, Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, and the like. These communication systems, sometimes standardized by organizations such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), may allow for voice communications and, additionally or alternately, may provide for the exchange of packet data, such as to, for example, access the Internet.
To provide broad geographic coverage, these communication systems typically include multiple base stations, where each base station may provide communication services to one or more areas, where each area is served by one or more base station cells. A serving base station cell provides wireless communication links to wireless communication devices located within the area served by that cell. As is often the case, a wireless mobile computing device will move from one location that may be served by one or more cells, to another location that may be served by one or more different cells. As the wireless mobile computing device moves further and further away from the current serving cell and towards other cells, a handoff may occur, such that the wireless mobile computing device will stop being served by the current cell, and begin to be served by another cell.
Difficulties arise, however, when a wireless mobile computing device undergoes a handoff procedure. For example, the device may execute a handoff procedure from a serving cell to a new cell as the signal strength of a serving cell becomes weaker while the signal strength of the new cell becomes stronger. The new cell, however, may not be the best option for the device. For example, there may be other cells in the area with a signal that may better serve the device, or although the new cell may have a strong signal, there may be many devices served by that cell that may cause a drop in throughput, or radio frequency (RF) interference issues caused by, for example, devices being located near each other and uploading or downloading content at similar times.
Additionally, executing a handoff procedure is a complicated and time-consuming process for a wireless mobile device, which may cause voice and data connections to be delayed or interrupted. Given these considerations, a user with a wireless mobile device (e.g. user equipment (UE)) may be moving along a route such that after a handoff from a first cell to a second cell, the second cell may serve that device only for a short amount of time, requiring the device to perform a second handoff procedure to a third cell as it moves away from the second cell's coverage area. Instead, the device may have been better off forsaking the handoff to the second cell, and instead undergoing a handoff procedure directly to a third cell that may cover more of the route's area even though the third cell may have a weaker signal than the second cell at the time and place of the handoff. Some existing solutions may provide for the use of signal-to-noise ratios and received signal levels to create an ordered list of serving cells that a UE may use as a priority list to determine best available cells for use at the UE's current location and time. These solutions, however, are limited in various ways. For example, these solutions do not take account of additional parameters that may indicate a quality of service on a particular cell. As an example, although a cell may have good signal strength, the cell may nonetheless exhibit poor data throughput rates, making the cell a poor serving cell candidate. Moreover, these solutions provide this information for use by a UE at a current time and place. Thus, there are opportunities for improved systems and methods for determining UE handoff decisions, for example, from a current serving cell to a future serving cell.